Who we actually are:
We are female graduate students and postdocs in a male dominated field, physics. We are also a working computer scientist. And we all knit. We knit to escape from our stressful working lives, and because we love seeing something beautiful coming from her own bare hands that does not need to be defended or reviewed.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I posted a F.O. shot of some lace muffatees I designed about 2 years ago on Ravelry and someone requested the pattern! I sent it out to a free online knitting magazine but never heard back, so I am posting it here now, because it seems that at least one person out there is interested!

I also have nothing to post on current knitting because of a major project deadline in a month (eep!) and I've also been taking advantage of my new Mac Book Pro being a faster Matlab-Number-Crunching-Machine than the computational servers at work! I loooove my new Mac... and I also love not having to share CPU time with anybody else! So here it is... my lace muffatee pattern.

What do you do with a couple of hundred yards of lace weight fiber? Especially when most shawls reach the elbow, and don’t cover your arms? Knit some lace muffatees with a Victorian-inspired ruffle, and look positively enchanting! Only want wristwarmers? Work less pattern repeats!Materials:200 yards of any lace weight fiber that can be blocked.The ones shown were made with 200 yards of handpaintedyarn.com lace pure wool, 850 yards per 100 g skein, color burgundy¼ inch wide sewing elastic (optional)US 5 ( 3.75 mm) needlesStitch MarkersA tapestry or darning needle to weave in endsScissors

Additional notes: I made these from the leftovers from my Kiri shawl, because the handpaintedyarn.com skeins have such generous yardage. I really liked working with this yarn because it's reasonably soft and very elastic. Blocks like a dream!

The lace stitch pattern is very easy to memorize. I suggest knitting from the chart because this four stitch four row pattern is so simple, the only part you really need to keep track of are the edges, where increases are incorporated into the stitch pattern. The decreases used are k2tog, or knit two together, skp, or slip one purlwise, knit one, pass slipped stitch over, and sk2p, or slip one purlwise, knit two together, pass slipped stitch over. On the ruffle, you will be making a yarn over on the purl or wrong side. To do this properly, hold your yarn as if you were going to purl the next stitch, wrap your yarn around the needle, then purl.

Repeat these rows 9 times then bind off loosely. Make another muffatee the same way.

Finishing:

When the knitting is done, block the muffatees before seaming them. Do not block the ruffle. To block, soak the muffatees for about 20 minutes before washing them, if you choose to wash them. Gently press out excess water without wringing them, place them in a clean towel, and roll the towel to remove more water. Stretch them to be about 1/2 an inch smaller than your arm measurements at the wrist and arm below elbow, and stretch to meet your arm’s length keeping side edges and top edge and wrist edge straight. Do not pull on the ruffle beyond stretching the wrist edge where you picked up stitches to make the ruffle. Seam up sides. If it is a little loose or you have small arms, sew in some elastic available at many fabric stores into the wrong side of the upper edge, below the elbow. If you use a dark color of yarn, you may want to use black elastic, I used white elastic in the example and it doesn’t show.Enjoy!